This blog is dedicated to bringing World War II era tank archives to a wider audience, by translating them into English if necessary and providing some historical context to those unfamiliar with it.
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Saturday, 2 November 2013

Barabash's Automatic Loading Mechanisms

In December of 1942, Engineer-Captain G.V. Barabash sent in blueprints of an invention to GABTU KA, titled "A mechanism for loading ammunition for the F-34 gun in the KV tank". A refined version of the invention was sent in in July of 1944. The invention came too late, but the concept was sound, and Barabash received a patent for his invention.

CAMD RF 38-11350-108

The text is too blurry to read the ammunition capacity, but it looks like 168 shells total. The device has two separate compartments, for AP and HE ammunition, which the operator of the device can select from.

In August of 1944, Barabash sent in his autoloader designs for the T-34. Sadly, his device was meant for the T-34-76, and not the T-34-85, so it was also not built.

CAMD RF 38-11350-109

The tank carried 122 76 mm shells. Like the KV version, the device has AP and HE in separate storage: 37 AP and 36 HE in the turret, and 49 more HE in the turret basket.